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CAMLPR Histology Practice Questions

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CAMLPR Histology Practice Questions

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300
Format
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2 years
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About these practice questions

These practice questions will help you prepare for the CAMLPR Histology exam.

This practice test contains 300 practice questions covering the eight sections of the CAMLPR Histology exam:

  1. Specimen Collection
  2. Preparation and Testing
  3. Evaluation and Interpretation
  4. Reporting and Communication
  5. Equipment and Resources
  6. Safety
  7. Professionalism
  8. Quality Assurance

All questions have been carefully designed to reflect the questions on the real exam, to help you prepare and get a passing grade.

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Sample practice questions

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Section 1: Specimen Collection

1) What is the term for the period of time between the excision of tissue and its placement in fixative?
  1. Autolysis transit time
  2. Clearing time
  3. Cold ischemia time
    Cold ischemia time begins the moment the tissue is surgically excised from the body and ends when it is placed into a chemical fixative.
  4. Latency time
2) A lung and liver specimen are collected from the same patient during the same procedure. How should they be submitted?
  1. In the same container with a single requisition form
  2. In the same container with separate requisition forms
  3. In separate containers with a single requisition form
    Different organs or tissue types should be placed in separate containers. They should never be placed in the same container because they can stick together, leading to cross-contamination. Because both specimens belong to the same patient and were collected during the same procedure, they should be submitted under a single requisition form.
  4. In separate containers with separate requisition forms
3) A breast biopsy container is labelled "left breast", but the request form says "right breast". What should the laboratory do?
  1. Contact the patient to confirm the correct side
  2. Contact the surgical department
    In this situation, you should contact the surgical department so the clinician can clarify the situation. It may be a clerical error (someone wrote "left" instead of "right") or it may be that the surgeon biopsied the incorrect breast.
  3. Discard the biopsy and request a new one
    Discarding the specimen is wrong. You should keep the specimen in case it is from the correct breast.
  4. Process the specimen, but add a note in the file
4) A fresh, unfixed tissue specimen arrives for flow cytometry, but the lab is closed for the night. Where should the specimen be stored until the following morning?
  1. In formalin
    Flow cytometry usually requires fresh specimens. Formalin may make them unsuitable.
  2. In the freezer
  3. In the incubator
  4. In the refrigerator
    Unfixed specimens can generally be stored in a fridge for a short time. Refrigeration slows autolysis and tissue breakdown. It should also be kept moist with saline or culture medium, such as RPMI. It may be covered with saline or wrapped in gauze soaked in culture medium.
5) Which additional information should accompany a gynecologic specimen sent for histology?
  1. Date of last mammogram
  2. Date of last menstrual period
    The microscopic appearance of the endometrium and cervical epithelium changes throughout the menstrual cycle. Knowing the date of the last menstrual period allows the pathologist to determine if the tissue is normal or abnormal for the patient's cycle.
  3. Patient's body mass index
  4. Patient’s blood type
6) In what type of container should a specimen for quantitative iron testing be transported?
  1. A metal-free container
    Specimens for iron testing must be transported in a metal-free container to prevent contamination from external iron.
  2. A tube with zinc-formalin fixative
  3. An amber glass vial
  4. Michel's transport medium
7) If a fixative cannot be added promptly, tissue specimens should be wrapped in a _______________ and refrigerated.
  1. dry sterile foil wrap
  2. moist saline gauze
    If a fixative cannot be added right away, tissue specimens should be wrapped in saline-dampened gauze and refrigerated to keep the tissue cool and moist.
  3. plastic specimen bag
  4. water-soaked paper towel
8) A surgeon asks if a fresh specimen for frozen section can wait three hours before being sent to histology. What is the best response?
  1. Yes, fresh specimens are stable for several hours
  2. Yes, if stored in distilled water
  3. Yes, if stored in formalin
    Tissue for frozen section requires fresh, unfixed tissue, so it should not be placed in formalin.
  4. No, fresh specimens should be sent promptly
    Fresh specimens for frozen section should be transported to histology as soon as possible to prevent drying and autolysis. Three hours is too long, as the tissue may dry out and become unsuitable for testing.
9) A histology specimen arrives without a requisition. What should the laboratory do?
  1. Discard the specimen and request another
    Discarding the specimen and requesting another would be appropriate if the specimen were unlabelled, but is too extreme if only the request form is missing.
  2. Obtain the missing request information
    When a specimen is correctly labelled but lacks a requisition, you should keep hold of the specimen and obtain the missing request information from the clinician.
  3. Return the specimen to the surgical department
  4. Send the specimen to a reference laboratory
10) After a surgical biopsy specimen is removed from a patient, what fluid is it usually placed in?
  1. 0.9% saline
  2. 10% neutral-buffered formalin
    Most surgical biopsy tissue should be placed in a fixative as soon as possible to preserve the tissue. The most commonly used fixative is 10% neutral-buffered formalin.
  3. 70% denatured ethanol
  4. PVA
11) Which of these specimens should be transported without a fixative?
  1. Colon resection for adenocarcinoma staging
  2. Gallbladder for cholecystitis assessment
  3. Lymph node for flow cytometry
    Flow cytometry requires fresh, viable cells. Fixatives such as formalin kill and preserve the cells, making them unsuitable for this test. Therefore, a lymph node submitted for flow cytometry should be transported fresh and without a fixative. The other specimens can be placed into a standard fixative like 10% neutral buffered formalin.
  4. Skin excision for carcinoma evaluation
12) When submitting a tissue specimen for routine histology, what times should the clinician provide to the laboratory?
  1. Admission time and discharge time
  2. Embedding time and sectioning time
  3. Excision time and fixation start time
    For routine tissue specimens, the surgeon should provide the time the tissue was removed from the body and the time it was placed in fixative. These times tell the laboratory how long the tissue was unfixed and whether fixation was started within an acceptable time.
  4. Staining time and coverslipping time
13) Specimens for intraoperative consultation should be submitted:
  1. in PreservCyt solution
  2. in RPMI media
  3. in formalin
  4. without a fixative
    Intraoperative means during surgery. Specimens for intraoperative consultations must be submitted fresh, without any fixatives. This allows the pathology department to perform rapid techniques such as frozen sectioning to provide the surgeon with an immediate diagnosis while the patient is still on the operating table.
14) An unlabeled specimen arrives at the laboratory. What should the laboratory do?
  1. Ask the staff member who took the specimen to identify it
  2. Label it using the information from the requisition
  3. Reject it and request a new one
    An unlabelled specimen container cannot be safely matched to the patient, even if the requisition is complete. Therefore, you should reject the specimen and request a new one.
  4. Report a confidentiality breach
15) A histology specimen is marked STAT, but its label does not match the request form. What should you do?
  1. Ask the operating room to resolve the mismatch
    STAT specimens are urgent, but they must still be correctly identified before processing. The laboratory should contact the operating room or attending physician to resolve the mismatch first.
  2. Change the label to match the request form
  3. Change the request form to match the label
  4. Process it immediately
16) Tissues should be placed in fixative within _________ after removal from the body.
  1. 2 minutes
  2. 10 minutes
  3. 30 minutes
  4. 1 hour
    Tissue specimens for histology should be placed in fixative as soon as possible after removal from the body, because otherwise, the specimen will quickly decay. Many histology guidelines use within 1 hour as the maximum acceptable delay before fixation begins.
17) When transporting tissue specimens in cold weather, how much alcohol should be added to the formalin to prevent the tissue from developing freeze artifacts?
  1. 1 part alcohol to 3 parts formalin
  2. 1 part alcohol to 5 parts formalin
  3. 1 part alcohol to 7 parts formalin
  4. 1 part alcohol to 9 parts formalin
    Formalin freezes in very cold weather. Adding alcohol to the formalin in the proportion of one part alcohol to 9–10 parts formalin will help to prevent damage to the tissue specimen related to freezing and thawing.
18) Specimens should be placed in a fixative that is ______ times greater than the volume of the tissue.
  1. 10–20
    The volume of fixative should be 10 to 20 times greater than the volume of the tissue. This helps the fixative soak fully into the tissue.
  2. 20–30
  3. 30–40
  4. 40–50
19) Approximately how quickly does formalin penetrate tissue?
  1. 1 mm/hour
    As a rule of thumb, formalin penetrates about 1 mm of tissue thickness per hour.
  2. 2 mm/hour
  3. 5 mm/hour
  4. 10 mm/hour
20) How long can formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded (FFPE) tissue be stored?
  1. 1–2 weeks
  2. 1–2 months
  3. 6–12 months
  4. Several years
    Formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded (FFPE) tissue can be stored for several years.

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About the CAMLPR Histology exam

What is the CAMLPR Histology exam?

The CAMLPR Histology exam is one of the single-field exams administered by the Canadian Alliance of Medical Laboratory Professionals Regulators (CAMLPR). The other single-field exams are Clinical Chemistry, Hematology, Clinical Microbiology, Transfusion Medicine, Cytogenetics, Molecular Diagnostics, and Cytology.

The histology exam tests your knowledge of how tissue specimens are prepared, examined, and interpreted. This includes tissue fixation, processing, embedding, sectioning, staining, special stains, immunohistochemistry, quality control, microscopy, and the use of manual and automated techniques to support disease diagnosis and patient care.

[CAMLPR-intro] [prometric] [CAMLPR-exam-format] [CAMLPR-exam-fees]

Exam bundles

You can take the Histology exam on its own or as part of one of the following "bundles":

[CAMLPR-bundles_intro] [CAMLPR-bundle_cyto-histo] [CAMLPR-bundle_chem-hema-trans-micro-histo] [CAMLPR-reschedule] [CAMLPR-fail]

Competencies

The questions on the CAMLPR Histology exam cover eight competencies, each testing a different area of knowledge. The eight competencies are:

  1. Specimen Collection
  2. Preparation and Testing
  3. Evaluation and Interpretation
  4. Reporting and Communication
  5. Equipment and Resources
  6. Safety
  7. Professionalism
  8. Quality Assurance

The following table shows the percentage distribution of the competencies assessed in the CAMLPR Histology exam.

Percentage distribution of the competencies in the CAMLPR Histology exam.
Competency Percentage of exam
Specimen Collection 10%
Preparation and Testing 35%
Evaluation and Interpretation 10%
Reporting and Communication 5%
Equipment and Resources 10%
Safety 15%
Professionalism 5%
Quality Assurance 10%

The next few pages will describe each of the eight competencies in detail. These competencies form the blueprint for the CAMLPR Histology exam and can help you focus your study on the areas most likely to be assessed.

1. Specimen Collection

The first competency, Specimen Collection, is about transporting and handling samples correctly so they stay suitable for testing. You will NOT need to know about retrieving tissue specimens from patients, as this is the job of a surgeon, physician, or pathologist, not a medical laboratory technologist.

This competency may include questions about:

[CAMLPR_1_1_health-professionals-only] [CAMLPR_1_2-9] [CAMLPR_1_10]

2. Preparation and Testing

The second competency, Preparation and Testing, is about preparing and testing samples accurately to give reliable results. It may test your knowledge of:

    [CAMLPR_2_1] [CAMLPR_2_2] [CAMLPR_2_3] [CAMLPR_2_4_histology] [CAMLPR_2_5] [CAMLPR_2_6] [CAMLPR_2_8] [CAMLPR_2_10] [CAMLPR_2_21]

3. Evaluation and Interpretation

The third competency, Evaluation and Interpretation, is about checking and understanding results to help with diagnosis and treatment. It may include questions about:

    [CAMLPR_3_2] [CAMLPR_3_5_histology]

4. Reporting and Communication

The fourth competency, Reporting and Communication, is about recording and sharing results clearly with healthcare teams. It may include questions about:

    [CAMLPR_4_2] [CAMLPR_4_4] [CAMLPR_4_6]

5. Equipment and Resources

The fifth competency, Equipment and Resources, is about using, maintaining, and fixing lab equipment, and managing supplies. It may include questions about:

    [CAMLPR_5_1] [CAMLPR_5_1_histology] [CAMLPR_5_2] [CAMLPR_5_3]

6. Safety

The sixth competency, Safety, is about following safety and infection control rules to protect staff, patients, and the environment. It may include questions about:

    [CAMLPR_6_1-11] [CAMLPR_6_14]

7. Professionalism

The seventh competency, Professionalism, is about acting ethically, communicating well, and working professionally with others. It may include questions about:

    [CAMLPR_7_1-5] [CAMLPR_7_7]

8. Quality Assurance

The final competency, Quality Assurance, is about following quality checks and standards to keep results accurate and reliable. It may include questions about:

    [CAMLPR_8_1] [CAMLPR_8_3-5] [CAMLPR_8_7-9] [CAMLPR_8_10] [CAMLPR_8_11]